On October 1, 2005, Fernando Lima, the owner of Finca Santa Elena, was preparing for another coffee harvest when the Santa Ana Volcano erupted for the first time in over 100 years. Located just a few hundred meters below the crater, the farm was devastated. It lost nearly its whole harvest that year, and it took five years to fully recover. Faced with this enormous challenge, Fernando recognized that the devastation also presented an opportunity to regroup and improve Finca Santa Elena. He replanted the farm with the Bourbon and Pacamara coffee varieties that established El Salvador's reputation for quality, alongside a diverse canopy of shade trees. He also nurtured the farm's rich volcanic soil to help these plants thrive.
By 2009, when we began working together, Finca Santa Elena had fully recovered, but Fernando was just getting started. He has continued to implement improvements each season to enhance cup quality and increase the farm's sustainability. One of the most noticeable improvements was the installation of shaded raised drying beds, which promote slower and more even drying. Fernando also set up an energy-efficient wet mill that uses 50 percent less water than his previous setup, saving thousands of liters each season. In recent years, they have experimented with pruning shade trees at different times of the season to measure the impact on the coffee's quality and yield.
Fernando’s intentionality in each step of his journey has helped Finca Santa Elena rise from the ashes to become a thriving, biodiverse coffee farm known for producing some of the best quality coffee in the region.
